


Things We Never Say

by The_Dragon_Em



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexuality, Canon-Typical Violence, Demisexuality, F/M, Growling, Headcanon, Headcanon Accepted, Mating, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mental Health Issues, Movie: Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Purring, Saiyan Instincts, Slow Burn, Tails
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 17:42:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16068098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dragon_Em/pseuds/The_Dragon_Em
Summary: Canon Divergent after Movie 8, Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan.With everyone thinking he's dead, the Legend winds up on Earth wondering what to do with himself. He never would have expected to find a distraction in the form of an intriguing weakling of a female Saiyan ... especially when they start to awaken each other's instincts.





	1. Unchained

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I haven't written a fanfiction in years, so I hope this one strikes your fancy! CC is more than welcome, and as this is unbetaed feel free to let me know if you see any errors!
> 
> I've RPed this OC with the same Broly writer for years, so there's a lot of mutual headcanons from our time writing together. Massive shout out to him. My appreciation for Broly stems from writing with him, and this story is dedicated to our years of mutual creativity.

_Change, nothing stays the same  
Unchained, yeah you hit the ground running_

* * *

They thought he was dead ... and more importantly, Paragus actually was. Finally, Broly had been freed from the control band; crushing the life out of his father had been cathartic and after that, the battle had seemed less important. When he had been injured, he had simply slipped away. He had wandered for a while, unsure what to do with himself now that he was no longer his father's weaponized slave. He lacked direction, but he was also calmer than he'd ever been before in his life. He just needed to find somewhere to think, somewhere that was unlikely to set him off ...

Broly had no idea how that place had wound up being Earth. The green and blue gem of a planet that his father had found the other Saiyans on seemed ... quiet. As long as he could avoid the people that thought he was dead, he saw no reason why he couldn't hole up somewhere and figure out - for the first time in his life - what _he_ wanted.

The first chore was to make sure that he couldn't be sensed. He had struggled during his interplanetary travels to learn to suppress his ki like Kakarot, Vegeta, and their spawn could. Actually trying to learn something was new to him, but he managed it by the time he made it to Earth. After a brief spree through one of the large cities, Broly found himself the bare necessities - a large sleeping bag, capable of handling his size, and not much else - and made his way into one of the vast forests of the planet where he was finally truly and blissfully alone.

It didn't take long for Broly to set himself up a camp. A ki blast cleared a circular area of dirt, and some logs tossed in made for a good fire pit. He threw down the sleeping bag far enough away sparks wouldn't catch it on fire. The other things he'd thought might be useful were tossed down near his sleeping space. There was a river nearby for water and cleaning himself up, and there was plenty of game in the area. He could stay out here indefinitely, and no one would ever find him. He still didn't know what he wanted to do with himself, but it didn't matter because he had what he'd always wanted the most ... freedom from his manipulative sociopath of a father. Freedom from the slavery that had been imposed on him when his father could no longer control him in any other way.

For the first time in his life, Broly was his own master.

The problem with that was that he had no idea what to do with himself. He'd certainly been known to _lose his temper_ from time to time, but it wasn't really that he took pleasure in destruction. It definitely worked very well as stress relief, or to lash out at his father when he was still able to back before the control band, but it wasn't something that could be considered a hobby or anything like that. It was more that it had been the only outlet that he ever had.

Now ... now Broly found everything around him to be oddly peaceful, and there was no need to lash out. He hunted and fished, lived in the wild, and felt more in tune with himself than he ever had before. It was disconcerting; he didn't trust it. Nothing good ever lasted, and most good things were some sort of bait. He couldn't help waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Not that things were perfect. There were always the nightmares to deal with, and Paragus's death and Broly's freedom hadn't quashed them. He woke up in a cold sweat night after night, and it was inevitable that he should one night wake up from a particularly bad nightmare with a roar as his ki burst out of him, destroying his sleeping bag.

Apparently his solitude couldn't last forever. In the morning, he was going to have to make a trip into the city.


	2. Curiosity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boy meets girl. Boy could kill girl. Total meet cute, right?

_Look at me_  
_Left here in the corner_  
_Stupid girl, I really tried to warn her_

* * *

The errand to the newly renamed Satan City did not go well. Maybe it was just too much to expect for Broly to be able to go into the city and pick up (read: steal) another sleeping bag without a hitch. The worms native to this planet should recognize that he was not someone to be trifled with and leave him alone. He wasn't used to being challenged, especially not by a maggot in a brown uniform of some sort with a metal stick. His automatic response had been to punch the offending weakling through the wall, and the situation had only escalated from there.

It took a remarkably short time for Broly to ascend to Legendary Super Saiyan out of pure rage over being bothered, physically attacking the blue-uniformed worms with their little projectile weapons and tossing their transports into buildings. Their persistent and growing attack against him had made that familiar rage boil up inside him, and it had burst out. It was only once there was no one left moving in his vicinity that Broly realized what a mistake this was. _He was in hiding._ If Vegeta, Kakarot, and their lot discovered he was alive they'd take away the uneasy peace he'd managed to find. The only answer was to move - and quickly. Quickly, but with the sleeping bag he'd come for. He enjoyed that one small luxury in his life.

He was still wrapped in rage and towered near eleven feet in height, the green tinge to his aura as his emotions kept fueling his Legendary state. He moved quickly though, winding through the streets of the city as he attempted to push down his fury and release Legendary Super Saiyan. He growled, his tail lashing furiously behind him, and turned down an ally - only to slam into a (compared to his current size) tiny figure that bounced off of him and fell on her ass. His nose twitched; she was unmistakably female and unmistakably Saiyan. In his current enraged state, destruction clouded his mind and he grabbed her by the throat, lifting her from the ground to slam her against the wall of the alley. She was a Saiyan; that meant she was a threat to his freedom.

Even with fury clouding his judgment, Broly was able to assess the situation. She was delicate for a Saiyan, with a slight build that lacked the heavy musculature of most of their race. One might even call her dainty, although there was a certain fierceness in her large brown doe eyes even as she was gasping for breath and attempting to claw his hand from her throat, tail lashing desperately behind her. Her chestnut hair fell silkily to her shoulders, making him wonder if she was only demi-Saiyan, although he supposed that she might have some sort of recessive trait when it came to the texture and brown hair wasn't unheard of. All in all, she looked utterly _unthreatening_ despite being one of his race.

Behind the fierceness, she was utterly terrified. This massive creature could clearly kill her with minimal effort, and it was getting harder to breathe as her feet dangled several feet off the ground. She fought for air, tried to move his titanium grip off of her neck enough that she could breathe easily, but otherwise ... she didn't fight back.

"SInce you're a Saiyan, I'll give you a fighting chance," Broly growled. This always went the same, no matter the species or how powerful they thought they were. They gave some weak attack, and he crushed them. This would be the same, although his _father_ would have had far different plans for something so rare as a female Saiyan. Possibly the _only_ female Saiyan. Broly, however, had no interest in that sort of pursuit. He let her go, and she crumpled briefly on the ground, still gasping for air before she staggered to her feet with those innocent looking eyes blazing.

"No." Her voice was firm, if raspy from her throat's rough treatment at the hands of the Legend. She was a little shaky on her legs as well, reminiscent of a young deer, but she forced her body upright and proud, chin up defiantly as she faced the mammoth being that loomed over her at nearly twice her height and easily four times her width. "I don't fight. I'm not going to fight you."

 _"What?"_ The shock did what his efforts to calm himself couldn't it blew the rage right out of him and let him finally release his Legendary transformation. He shrank down to his normal height - still impressive at eight feet - and gave the girl a curious glare. She was wearing what he had come to recognize as Earth attire, making him wonder again if she might be only half Saiyan, and she was definitely not _muscular_ but she did have slim muscle on her strangely delicate frame. She was definitely in better shape than the majority of humans, but for a Saiyan she looked pathetically weak. "What garbage are you on about?"

Her chin lifted a little more; she radiated stubborn pride that marked her as Saiyan as clearly as her scent and her tail. She was clearly recovering quickly from being knocked down, pinned to a wall, then dropped several feet to the ground; she was scraped and bruised, her voice still raspy, but she was pulling herself together and ignoring her (shockingly minor, considering who had inflicted them) injuries. "I don't fight. At all, ever. I'm a pacifist."

For a moment Broly stared at the smaller Saiyan with utter disbelief, and then he burst into cruel laughter. It only lasted a few moments, and then was cut short as he glared down at the woman who was currently his prey. "Bullshit. You're a Saiyan. Saiyans fight." He pushed her roughly back against the alley wall; she stumbled back with defiance etched on her face as he pinned her there with one hand braced against her bare shoulder. He didn't for a moment believe that she was a pacifist, but her refusal to fight was at least _interesting_. "Maybe I should knock you around a bit and see what you're really made of."

That chin just wouldn't go down, and her tail was bristling now. He could tell he was pissing her off, but she didn't fight back against the hand pressing her into the rough, aged brick of the wall behind her. "Do your worst. I _won't fight you_. I don't fight at all. Ever."

The lack of sniveling excuses about being a halfbreed decided Broly on the matter of her blood; she _was_ a pure Saiyan ... and quickly becoming the most interesting on the short list of Saiyans he'd actually met. Being born (and having someone attempt to murder you) on the day that most of the species was destroyed kind of put a damper on being too familiar with your species or culture. Mostly Broly assumed most Saiyans had been like his father, which meant the universe was better off without them. Calling the man a sociopath was being overly generous. This girl, though ... "So if I decided I wanted to kill you, you wouldn't fight back? Would you beg? Try to run away?"

"I wouldn't fight back," the girl said firmly. It was mind-boggling; what sort of creature wouldn't even fight to defend its life? That stubborn pride, though - he'd seen that in Kakarot, and Vegeta, even their halfbreed offspring. In every Saiyan he'd met except his father, whose _pride_ suddenly disintegrated the moment that turning tail and running became the more pragmatic option. She was making the most of her five foot five inch height, but Broly still loomed over her as she defied him. "I don't _beg_ ," she said in a clipped tone, her disgust with that option obvious. Then, with a shrug that rubbed her smooth skin against his palm, she admitted, "I suppose I'd run if I thought it might do any good, but it wouldn't, so I'll keep my pride thank you."

He couldn't help himself; she was _intriguing_. He'd been at loose ends since killing his father, unsure what to do now that he was no longer a slave. This woman ... she'd perked his interest, given him something to amuse himself with. Broly wanted to know more. "I'm Broly, the Saiyan of Legend," he said gruffly; he waited silently for her to respond to this social ritual that he only really had a passing knowledge of.

For a moment she stood there in stunned silence; even having _seen_ the Legendary Super Saiyan in his Legendary form, it was hard to wrap her mind around. Her birth parents, in the short time she'd been with them, had told her stories to get her to sleep. The Legendary Super Saiyan had been one of them. "No, you're not. That's just a myth!" she blurted out.

Broly laughed again, looking mockingly down at the girl. "You saw what I am, and you can't accept it?" He smirked and she couldn't help but notice of all things that he had dimples. "When someone offers their name, you're supposed to give yours in return." Even he knew that.

Her gaze had turned wary, hinting at the fear she'd felt since first running into him. "Chessa," she said softly. "I'm Chessa Ohanzee. Completely ordinary Saiyan Chessa."

Except she definitely wasn't ordinary. She was interesting. Definitely a potential diversion of some sort. Removing his hand from her shoulder, he crossed his arms and smirked down at her. "I've decided to let you live. You're too pathetic to bother killing." Nodding towards the end of the alley to indicate she could leave, he watched as Chessa hesitated, then darted off with color in her cheeks ... although from anger or something else, Broly couldn't say.

After a moment, Broly grabbed his sleeping bag and rose up into the air and followed as the girl first ran, then slowed to a walk. She kept her head on a swivel, clearly spooked by her encounter with him, but she was clearly unaware that he was following. Eventually, he perched on top of the building across from the one she went into and watched until she appeared in one of the large windows. After a moment she came out onto the balcony, looking around with a crease between her brows, then went back inside and locked the large sliding doors.

She was intriguing. Finally, Broly had some sort of distraction, and he was looking forward to continuing to find amusement in this bizarre example of a Saiyan. Maybe he'd finally found something other than providing meat for himself to fill his time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does the name Chessa Ohanzee sound familiar? You may have seen her before in my (disgracefully) unfinished fic on ff.net from about a decade and a half ago, or on one of several RP sites I've played her on. #FunWithOCs


	3. Every Breath You Take

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stalking: the pastime of Legends.

_Every move you make_  
_Every step you take_  
_I'll be watching you_

* * *

Chessa watching was quickly becoming one of Broly's favorite pastimes. Everything she did, from going to her mundane job to riding her capsule motorcycle through the city when she didn't want to walk, was perfectly normal for this backwater dirtball. It was all new for Broly, and it was fascinating to him that she really didn't seem to engage in violence as she went about her day. She wasn't submissive towards the people around her, this was no cowering bitch showing her belly and begging people not to hurt her. No, she stood proudly and somehow kept violence from coming to her. It was odd and fascinating and he honestly had no idea how she did it. In one day he spotted a half dozen times that he would have ground someone into the pavement where she just ... brushed things off. And all of that as proud and strong-willed as he'd ever seen. It was fascinating.

None of this, of course, was anywhere near as impressive as the slight Saiyan having stood up to _him_. For a long time no one had stood up to him; honestly, Kakarot and Vegeta and their spawn had been the first ... and that was _after_ the so-called Prince of All Saiyans had spent half the fight cowering in utter terror. This, though ... the way she'd stood defiantly in the face of certain death and hardly shown her fear had been ... he wasn't sure he could describe it, but it had him feeling more than a little obsessive.

Perched atop a building, Broly watched idly as Chessa tucked a strand of her oddly silky brown hair behind her ear while she was talking to a female Earthling with long pale gold hair and a notably large chest. It seemed like an idle conversation, simple socializing ... something foreign to Broly. He'd never been allowed to make friends as a child; his father had kept him isolated and dependant on him, and that was just the beginning of what he'd been through at his father's hands.

This, though ... the Saiyan woman leaned in towards the fair-haired human, putting a hand lightly on her shoulder and laughing. His eyes narrowed and he frowned down at the scene. There was something ... he'd seen humans courting do things like that. Confused, he continued to watch the pair, but everything else that they did seemed to be what he'd so far observed as probably normal human social behavior.

It was odd. Except for the tail, most of the time Chessa blended in perfectly with the humans around her. She moved like them, talked like them ... she might as well have _been_ one of them. Except every now and then ... in those moments when Broly would have a broken body at his feet ... then he was reminded she was Saiyan. It was confusing, especially since his general feeling towards his race was that of unease and mistrust.

Leaning forward slightly as the brown-haired Saiyan and the Earth female moved to a table at an outdoor cafe, trying to figure out the puzzle that was Chessa.

* * *

Dating as an alien was interesting, to say the least. For a while, as a teenager, Chessa had thought she might be a lesbian, but a trip to watch a martial arts tournament had set that straight. All that strength on display, power, and sinew, and muscle ... it wasn't that she didn't like men, she was just apparently a snob about them, drawn to strength like a moth to a flame. Women were easier; she connected with them on a much more _human_ level and was more interested in someone who was emotionally and mentally strong than ... well, honestly she wasn't sure what the deal was with her and strong men. Whatever it was, it meant she'd never dated a man, not that she dated around a lot to begin with. It _also_ meant that she had found herself having a couple vivid dreams about Broly since that encounter, something that she found to be highly embarrassing.

At least she'd never see him again. Once was enough.

This meet up with Kini wasn't exactly a first date, but it was something like it. She'd experimented a little with the blonde in high school, but they hadn't actually seen each other in at least five years. Then a couple days after her run-in with Broly, Chessa had run into Kini at her job at the market and after a little flirting they'd decided to see if there was anything still there. Not that there'd really been anything to begin with besides friendship and teenage lust, but hey, there were worse starting points for a potential relationship. Much worse, and Chessa'd tried them all. It was extremely rare for her to make it to a second date.

As she tried to decide what to order, the chestnut-haired Saiyan looked over the edge of the laminated menu at her friend from high school. If nothing else, it would be nice to catch up and maybe she could get back in touch with Toufa, too. The blonde was biting her lower lip as she perused the menu, and Chessa licked her own lip. She definitely remembered their shared kisses, and that was something she'd not be opposed to repeating if the date went that way. Kini seemed to feel Chessa's eyes on her and looked up, smiling brightly at her. Chessa's hope for this date went up a few notches; maybe there'd be a second one this time.

* * *

Huh. It _did_ seem like some sort of mating ritual. Brows creased, Broly wondered how she could do such a thing. Even he, who had never had a chance to see what Saiyan courtship was supposed to be like, knew that _this_ wasn't it. It was also nothing like his father's mating habits; those had turned Broly's stomach on the occasions that he'd been aware of what was going on. This was preferable to Paragus's patterns of behavior, but it was still bizarre. He could tell Chessa was the dominant female - as it should be, with the other woman being an Earthling - even if it was a subtle thing. Very subtle. Why wasn't she making it clear that she was the one in charge? His father had always been flagrant in his displays of dominance.

He continued to watch as the pair of women went through their little dance of an Earth mating ritual, but when they were finished they simply pressed their lips to each other's cheeks and ... parted ways. That was bizarre; had the ritual not gone well? Perhaps Chessa had decided that the Earth female had not met her standards. The human was aesthetically attractive, like a painting or a statue, but personally, Broly doubted she was particularly strong and he'd heard his father go off about strong mates enough to be fairly sure that was the norm for Saiyans. Never mind that the only requirements for his father's bed partners had been 'pretty' and 'feminine'. He pushed that thought away; at this point, Broly was starting to think that even though he'd killed his father he was never going to be free from his father's ghost.

Lifting up from the roof where he'd been watching Chessa, Broly idly floated along above her as she walked away from the cafe looking content. He definitely didn't understand her; all he was sure of was that she didn't act like a Saiyan. He wasn't really sure what normal Saiyans were like, but the answer was not him, and not her. He'd been too busy raging violently after breaking the bonds of over a decade of mind control in addition to slavery at his father's hands for him to ask any sorts of questions of those that Paragus had lured to the so-called New Vegeta. Which was why he was now pretending to be dead and spending his free time watching a curious Saiyan female.

It was starting to get dark and it was still some distance to Chessa's home on the tenth floor of her building, but it didn't even cross Broly's mind to be concerned for his amusement. After all, pacifist or not, she was still a Saiyan. What on this backwards mudball could threaten her? Besides him, of course; he was a threat to everyone.


	4. Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Attempted Rape
> 
> Are we villains, or are we heroes? Maybe labels don't have to apply.

_Fear awaken_  
_Go with it now_  
_And let it overcome you_  
_Fear awaken_  
_Your mind is racing_

* * *

Her date with Kini had gone well. Not kiss goodnight well, but they'd promised to meet up again soon and Chessa had even gotten Toufa's number out of the deal so that she could reconnect with the other member of their trio of high school friends. She wasn't sure if she was really interested in the busty blonde romantically, but at the very least it would be nice to get back together with old friends. She was humming to herself as she started walking home.

Generally speaking, Chessa didn't worry about danger in the city. That was why she'd been in an alley when Broly had turned that corner; what was there for her to fear? She might be a pacifist, but there honestly weren't that many people who could hurt her. Compared to the humans she'd grown up around, Chessa was strong without trying. Hell, she was practically bulletproof. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been afraid, except for her encounter with Broly.

In the days since Chessa's life had fallen back into its normal pace. Work, time with friends, all the usual things she filled her life with ... including watching MMA and martial arts competitions on a regular basis on TV. She might not participate in violence, but that didn't stop her from being drawn to it, to watching with adrenaline thrumming and baited breath as the figures on her screen pounded each other, and the more violently the better. It was something of a dirty little secret, but at the same time, she felt like it helped as much as meditation and the intense control she had over her ki to keep her own brutal instincts in check.

The night was turning a little chilly, and so Chessa pulled her pink cardigan tighter around her as she looked around, and then ducked down the alley. This was a frequent shortcut for her, and so Chessa didn't think anything of the tall muscle-headed human coming from the other direction. After all, he was still only human. What did she have to fear from any of the natives of this planet?

It was a complete shock when the muscular human grabbed her by the arm, whipping the Saiyan woman around to face him. At first, he received no resistance; Chessa was so shocked by being accosted that her mind initially drew a complete blank. Sure, she _looked_ like your run of the mill human, but she was genuinely surprised that someone had mistaken her for easy prey.

Then she tried to yank her arm away, and found herself shocked again; her arm was trapped in an unforeseen vicelike grip. She jerked away more violently but again found no response except for a vicious sneer and a harsh chuckle. He tossed her on the ground and wasted no time crawling on top of her, his heavy body pinning her to the ground with an efficiency that flabbergasted her. Chessa shoved at the body on top of her, disgusted by the smell assaulting her sensitive nostrils, gagging as she struggled and attempted fruitlessly to escape. The man gave a lopsided smile and laughed cruelly, ripping off her soft pink sweater and forcing up the skirt of her dress, fabric tearing from his sheer roughness as he forced his large, brutish body between her legs. Pride momentarily forgotten, she screamed.

Then a hulking creature landed beside her, towering over Chessa and her attacker and roaring in unbridled rage.

* * *

Broly's boots hit the pavement with a sound like a bass drum. It had taken him longer than it probably should have to put together both what was happening and that for some reason the Saiyan female couldn't escape. She should have been able to get away even without letting go of her silly pacifism, but just because she was weaker than he thought didn't mean that Broly was going to let some disgusting human worm touch her.

The roar that accompanied his landing wasn't planned; it came from a place of tightly coiled fury ... a place that he had very little control over.

Grabbing the offending human by the back of his rank neck, Broly ripped him off of Chessa and tossed him down the alley. He bounced once and skidded quite some distance before he stopped, and Broly smiled cruelly after his prey. Chessa, still gasping and trembling on the cement, couldn't help but notice that as vicious as that smile was it was still framed by a pair of dimples; that particular knowledge seemed useless and noticing it inappropriate.

For a brief moment the dark-haired mountain of a Saiyan looked down at Chessa in her torn clothes, and then he turned to his target. He ran briefly, then jumped into the air and landed square on the smaller Saiyan's attacker. He bounced several times, up and down, relentless, until the crumpled and bloody body of the would-be rapist was driven into a small crater in the pavement. Then he turned back to check on Chessa, fully expecting for her to have run away during his brutalization of the man who had accosted her.

Broly's eyebrows lifted just slightly in shock to see Chessa still there, sitting up and clinging to her damaged garments. She was a little scuffed up, but she was also a Saiyan. She'd be fine. Well, probably; the fact that she was sitting there and staring at him with her soft looking pink lips parted slightly had him marginally worried. Not sure how to deal with that sort of emotion, Broly stepped out of the divot that his pulverization of the human had left, took one step towards Chessa - and that was apparently enough.

Chessa stumbled to her feet with all the grace of a newborn fawn, and once she had gained her feet she darted towards Broly. Her face pressed against his broad chest, and Broly's breath caught as he looked down at her, utterly bemused. She was clinging to him, shaking. He stood stiffly and found himself idly admiring the fact that she wasn't crying even after what she'd just been through. The people his father had taken to bed had always cried and screamed and ... there were reasons that Broly didn't foresee himself actually finding himself a mate even if there were actually options. Just like there were reasons he didn't like being touched, for all that he was tolerating it for _her_.

Cautiously, Broly raised one hand and brushed a thick finger against her cheek, brushing against soft skin and that oddly soft hair. He was used to being bigger and stronger than pretty much everyone around him, but Chessa seemed especially breakable. Such a pathetic creature ... and yet she was showing no sign of her earlier fear except for the trembling of her body, something clearly beyond her control.

That and she was clinging to Broly for safety, her fingers curled against his bare chest as she pressed close. It was something that the Legend couldn't quite fathom as reality, but there was no denying that she was there and apparently putting her complete trust in him.

* * *

His scent was filling her nose, Broly's rich musk soothing her frayed nerves. She could feel his ki, too, surrounding her as she stood this close to him, as warm as though she'd stepped into the heart of a roaring fire. He was so powerful it rendered her breathless, and Chessa felt near ready to collapse from sheer relief that he had been nearby when she had been attacked. If there hadn't been anyone around - she didn't have any clue why that man had been so _strong_ , but she was safe now. Overriding her brain, all of her senses screamed that was true, that Broly's presence meant that she had absolutely nothing to worry about.

After a long moment her trembling started to fade, and as she stilled against the large Saiyan her mind started feeling less fear-fogged. Hesitant as she felt, the smaller Saiyan didn't move from where she was. After a moment, her voice somewhat weak, she murmured, "You - you killed him, didn't you."

For a long moment, Broly was silent. Then one halting hand came up to rest against the small of her back, holding her with remarkable gentleness, awkwardly reassuring while still offering escape. "I did."

" _Why?_ I'm just some pathetic girl - I couldn't even get a _human_ off of me, and I can usually just brush them off like they're nothing." Because they were nothing, at least when it came to physical strength. They were an entire race of weaklings, except for one or two that sometimes attended the martial arts tournaments. She shouldn't have needed help, and she was awash in shame that she'd been unable to take care of herself. You didn't have to fight back against humans; you could just pull out of their grip and walk away.

There was another long, pregnant pause. When Broly spoke, Chessa could practically hear the blush in his voice. "It doesn't matter."

Maybe it didn't matter to him, but it was important to her. He'd saved her, and that definitely wasn't something that she was going to forget. It was surreal though; the first time they'd met he'd scared her witless and threatened to kill her, and now he'd saved her from being raped. Pulling back slightly so she could look up at Broly - and suddenly hyperaware of the hand on her back - she gave him a small smile. "Well, it matters to me. Thank you for saving me."

Broly grunted. "You really are pathetic."

There was less sting in his words this time. Chessa blushed herself as she took a step back with only the slightest resistance from Broly, then reached up to brush her hand against his cheek. Her brows furrowed as he flinched slightly at her touch, and slowly drew her hand away. "I - I suppose I should get home." No response. "Thank you again." Another grunt. Turning, Chessa tugged her torn sweater around her and started the rest of the way towards home. She was even more on guard as she returned to her apartment complex, utterly unaware that for the second time she had a shadow ... although this time Broly wasn't following her out of curiosity, but rather out of an inexplicable urge to make sure she was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a hard chapter to write, thanks for sticking with me! I did a lot of jumping around while I was putting it together, so hopefully, it all came out in the right order.


	5. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting complicated. Will Broly's stalking be discovered?

_Still dancing with your demons_  
_Victim of your own creation_  
_Beyond the will to fight,_  
_Where all that's wrong is right_

* * *

Since saving Chessa from her human attacker - since having her stand so close to him like that - Broly couldn't get her scent out of his nose. He'd received a motherlode of information about her and instead of ignoring it like he usually would he found himself remembering how she smelled, rolling through what it told him about her. She had a clean, healthy scent, and once the fear had faded from it she had smelled confident. Strong. Something inside him couldn't let him stop obsessing over her scent, over the strength and courage she'd exhibited that were equal any warrior ... well, any warrior that couldn't fight, anyways. Unfortunately, he was too caught up in his interest in her to do what he'd usually do in the case of something so irritating as an obsession, prying into his mind like a pebble in his boot. That was to say, he couldn't bring himself to kill her.

It was bad enough that Broly had temporarily abandoned his camp and set up a spot for himself on the roof across from her balcony doors where he could watch her without giving away his position. As the Legend pointedly ignored any possible implications of his current obsession he rested lazily on the edge of the roof, arm resting easily on the low lip around the edge of the building as he watched Chessa move about her apartment ... watching her television energetically ... eat her dinner (one of a smaller size he'd expect from a Saiyan, although perhaps that was because of how comparatively sedentary she was). Then she got up and stretched, going out of his line of sight and coming back in it briefly in what he'd come to recognize as human sleeping garments. Finally, the lights in her home flicked off, and she was presumably off to bed.

For a while Broly dozed; this was hardly the least comfortable place he'd slept, after all. The night sounds of the city were different than his current forest 'home', but they had a similar rhythm to them. Enough that he felt as much at ease as he ever did, although he still slept lightly. Nowhere was completely safe.

She'd left the balcony door ajar, assumably to let in the night air, and so Broly could easily hear what was going on inside. Before he had slipped into uneasy slumber, he had been more tuned into the faint sounds coming from Chessa's rooms than he was to the varied din of the city around them. Even mostly asleep, his ears were focused on the sounds from her room, and when those changed it disturbed his slumber.

At first he thought it was nothing; Broly drowsily looked over the edge towards the balcony doors, one of which was moving back and forth silently in the night breeze. What had woken him? It took a moment to focus properly, and then he knew.

Faint sounds of thrashing. Soft moans and cries. He recognized that restlessness; on many a night, and not even ones that were all that bad, Broly was just as restless. Chessa was clearly having a nightmare, and the Legend would be more than willing to bet the cause was the attack a few nights before. Broly had much more vivid fuel for his own nightmares, but he could sympathize with the terrors that came when you slept.

The Legend hesitated, then launched himself over the edge of the roof and landed lightly on the woman's balcony. He hesitated again, then opened the freely swinging door and stepped into Chessa's home. His head swung to take in his surroundings, and then he tilted his head upwards slightly to sniff at the air. He picked up on the chestnut-haired Saiyan's scent easily, pulling the freshest traces out of the air, and followed them until he found the uneasily sleeping female tossing in her bed.

Again he hesitated, then moved slowly forward to sit on the edge of the bed. Tentatively, knowing how prone he was to lash out at anything that woke him, he placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.

She woke with a gasp and pushed herself up on her elbows, looking around frantically and then relaxing slightly when she saw Broly there. That was ... incredibly odd. Broly didn't think that anyone had ever looked calmer upon seeing him, but he could both see and smell the tension drain out of her when Chessa recognized him. It hadn't been _that_ long since he'd threatened her life, and he was slightly miffed that she had apparently not taken the threat more seriously. For the moment, though ... his voice came gruffly in his native tongue.

For a moment Chessa stared at him, her brow furrowed and her lips parted in a little confused O. Her lips met, and she swallowed, then asked, "Can you repeat that? I haven't spoken Saiyan regularly since I was three."

Broly gave a small smile, dimples flashing for a moment before the expression was gone. More slowly, he repeated himself, _"You were having a nightmare."_

This time Chessa nodded, looking up at him with an expression of concentration on her wide-eyed face. Once she seemed to have her thoughts together, she replied in their language, _"You wake me up?"_

Her attempt was clumsy, childish, but it was honestly a little impressive that she remembered any of the Saiyan tongue at all if she'd stopped speaking it as a small cub. Broly nodded and refrained from forcing her to find any more of the language she'd obviously half-forgotten when she likely wasn't more than half-awake. Maybe another time, he could coax more out of her.

"Why? _How?_ I mean - how did you know?"

"I was close by. I heard you."

The female looked dubious but decided not to question his answer. "That's twice you've just happened to be nearby when I needed someone." When she'd needed _him_ , although the thought of saying it so explicitly made her blush faintly.

Broly's only response was a vague grunt, and he continued to sit awkwardly at the edge of the bed. Should he leave now that Chessa'd been calmed? He had half expected to be chased from her home for daring to invade it, but the female Saiyan had not only not cast him out of her apartment but she had not even evicted her from his seat on the edge of her bed. The whole thing was more than a little mind-boggling.

It was Chessa that broke the silence. "Since you're here, and it's really late ..." she paused and looked up at him with pleading eyes as she switched to Saiyan, " _stay?_ "

Broly's brow furrowed suspiciously as he looked down at the delicate Saiyan. He knew she was making an effort, even with just that one word in their native language. What he couldn't fathom was _why_. "You don't owe me anything."

"I didn't say I did. I just thought you might like somewhere comfortable to sleep where you didn't have to travel for ages before you got to rest." She scooted back, pinning herself in against the wall and vacating a space for Broly to sleep in, should he desire.

He gazed down as she offered him the lion's share of her sleeping space, those big brown eyes looking up at him invitingly. With a sigh, he kicked off his boots and laid down beside her. Again, their bodies pressed close; between the fact that this was her space and her hair being practically under his nose, he couldn't smell anything except _her_. For a moment Broly hesitated, not wanting to encourage further touch than that necessitated by her narrow bed, and then he gave in and reached up to run two fingers tentatively through her silky hair. "Your hair is strange. For a Saiyan, I mean."

"Is it?" she asked sleepily, obviously comfortable with the proposed sleeping arrangements. "My father's was the same. I used to grab it all the time when I was little. His hair was black, though."

"It is. Most Saiyans have black hair, although a small percentage have brown." It was odd the things he had picked up about his species, versus the things he was clueless about. "You're the first Saiyan I've seen with anything but spikey, coarse hair."

"Like yours?" she asked, drowsily curious and as bold as ever. Broly stiffened as Chessa ran her fingers through his hair, full-handed; he slowly tried to relax when she removed her hand almost immediately. "Yours feels a lot more like fur, but some breeds of dog have silkier fur than others so maybe I'm just, I don't know, an uncommon breed or something like that."

She was mumbling at the end, her eyes drooping half closed, and Broly gave her a tight smile. "Perhaps. I'm hardly an expert on our people."

"Mmm." Chessa yawned. "Still know more than me."

The female's eyes slid closed and her breathing fell into a rhythm that told him she was asleep. For a long moment Broly just laid there, and then he jumped when the sleeping woman nestled in closer to him and buried her nose in his chest, inhaling his scent as she rested. Having no idea what to do, Broly kept completely still. Then, his hand jerking as he moved, the Legend experimentally placed one large hand on the gentle sway of her waist and closed his eyes with his nose just barely above the part of her hair. Her natural smell washed over him, and in a surprisingly short time Broly was relaxing into sleep.


	6. Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do things hold up under the light of day?

_Woke up this morning_  
_Found a love light in the storm_  
_Looked up this morning_  
_Saw the roses full of thorns_

* * *

Her nose slowly rubbed in the patch of dark hair in the center of Broly's chest, her eyes still heavy with sleep. Somehow they'd gotten closer together in the night, Broly's strong arm draped around her with his hand pressed to the small of her back, one leg hooked over hers. Snuggling into his protective grip, Chessa blinked blearily up at the large Saiyan in her bed, her cheeks coloring. She didn't think that she'd ever woken up feeling so _safe_ , which was odd given the way she'd so recently met Broly.

The huge male shifted in his sleep, pulling Chessa even closer and wrapping her tighter in his arms. Her heart rate jumped and her cheeks flushed; the idea that Broly might want to hold her like this, even subconsciously, was definitely overwhelming. In addition to being physically impressive (and attractive) and saving her from both physical attacks and nightmares, Broly smelled  _divine_. That scent under everything else, the one that was just  _him_ ... she could drown in that scent, and do so happily. As close as she was now with her nose pressed to his chest, she might be in danger of doing just that and she couldn't find it in her to complain.

His head dipped towards her, his nose rubbing gently in the top of her head, and Chessa let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. He smelled  _so good_ , and she didn't mean the notes that told her he was healthy and strong, nor the more subtle ones that whispered to her nose about his qualities that would be desirable in a mate. That base scent, the one that was just him, was so heady that she didn't know if she'd ever be able to pull away.

The nose in her hair moved again, and Chessa felt Broly inhale against her hair. Those tree trunk arms tightened around her again, then slackened. A gruff, sleepy voice murmured, "You might be a pathetic weakling, but you certainly smell good."

"You do, too," Chessa murmured faintly against his chest, a little afraid to try to look up at the man holding her. She at least didn't smell so much as a whiff of arousal, although she wasn't certain whether to be relieved or offended by that. And while he might not have been, she realized that  _she_  was certainly aroused. Holding her breath again, she hoped he wouldn't notice.

Her hopes were dashed when Broly stilled his gentle morning movements, then stiffened, then slowly started to extract himself from her. Hastily, not wanting to make him any more uncomfortable than she already had, the chestnut-haired Saiyan pulled back so she was pressed against the wall again, sheepishly refusing to meet her guest's eye. Delicate hands grasped the blanket, pulling it up almost to her chin as though she could shield herself from her embarrassment; at the same time, Broly sat up on the edge of the bed.

"I'm not angry with you," Broly said bluntly, naturally (for him) assuming that she was worried she'd offended him and frightened of the possible repercussions. "I'm just not interested. At all, it has nothing to do with you specifically." Before Vegeta and Kakarot and their spawn, his world had consisted of his father and strangers. His father took lovers carelessly and cast them away like garbage when he was done. Broly, on the other hand, passed through the seas of people drifting through space and failed to feel whatever it was that made Paragus grab at feminine beauties like they were delicacies at dinner. He could look at Chessa and know that his father (had he not crushed him into a bloody pulp) would have wanted to obtain her even were she not Saiyan. On the other hand, Broly just felt ... oddly protective. Such a pathetic little thing, and so _intriguing_.

"That's all right, I wasn't trying to start, um, anything," Chessa said with an awkward laugh. "I just woke up with my nose  _filled_ with your scent and - eh heh, did I mention you smell  _really_ good?"

Broly frowned slightly. "So do you." What did this have to do with anything? He sat there quietly, waiting for her to elaborate.

"Um, and generally speaking scent plays a larger roll in attraction for Saiyans than appearance?" She was lucky as hell to have a spotty database that was badly translated into Earth's language; it was almost nothing, but it had gotten her through puberty. She'd had to fill in a lot of blanks since then (like the strength thing) but the extreme bare bones basics had survived. "There are other factors, like physical and mental strength, stuff like that, but when it comes to basic five senses interaction scent is  _very_ important in how our people experience, uh, desire."

"Huh." He never would have guessed that from his father's, erm, liberal and sometimes violent mating habits ... and his father had given up on trying to teach Broly to be a fully functional Saiyan ... well, maybe from day one. Curiously, he reached out to brush her hair back, releasing another wave of her scent. "Well - not that I have other Saiyan females to compare you to - but you smell amazing and I have no desire to -" He broke off and his nose wrinkled slightly at the thought. If he ever  _did_ stumble upon someone he wanted to do that with, he didn't know if he'd even know what to do.

"Oh." She wasn't sure what to say to that; it felt like a compliment but she was also pretty sure it was a rejection. That was just  _extra_ lovely, seeing as she hadn't even intentionally come on to him. Trying to lighten the mood, she joked, "Next time we have a sleepover we'll just have to spoon."

The look he turned on her, eyebrows lowered and eyes piercing, both made her wish she'd said  _anything_ else and also demanded an explanation.

"Uh, I mean, if we end up - platonically! - sharing a bed again, then if we slept facing the same direction with my back against your chest then I wouldn't wake up to a noseful of your scent and end up embarrassing myself again." She blushed, wondering if it would be possible to sink into the bed and disappear completely. "I really wasn't trying to start anything. I was hoping you wouldn't notice and I could pretend it never happened."

Ah. Broly shook his head slightly, tucking her silky hair behind an ear, and stood up. "I enjoyed sharing a bed with you. Perhaps we'll do it again sometime if I'm in the area at night. Or if you need my help keeping nightmares away." Actually, he hadn't had a nightmare after climbing in bed with her, either. There might be something to sharing space and body heat with another Saiyan at night, especially one that wasn't a threat and that he was ... sort of ... maybe a little ... coming to trust.

Still blushing, Chessa sat up properly in her bed, turning to face Broly. "You're welcome anytime ... and thank you for your help with the nightmare."

Broly reached out with surprising gentleness to cup her jaw in one hand, brushing his thumb across her cheek. "Pathetic."

With that he turned to go out onto her balcony and soar away into the azure sky.


	7. This Could Be Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chessa and Broly both angst about what is going on between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait; I was super out of practice when I started it and now I'm annoyed with the quality. Sorry that this is short; it's sort of a transition and hopefully, it'll work out going forward.

_I've got a book of matches_  
_I've got a can of kerosene_  
_I've got some bright ideas involving you and me_

* * *

How were you supposed to deal with someone who threatened you then saved you from attackers and nightmares, who stressed that they weren't interested then complimented your scent, and who called you pathetic in a tone that made it sound like an endearment? Chessa was so confused that her head was spinning and she'd called into work that day to try to take the extra hours to put her head back into some semblance of order.

That wasn't proving particularly easy to do. She shouldn't like Broly  _at all_ , but she clearly did ... and she was fairly certain that it wasn't just physical. It was disturbing, but she was starting to trust him ... and she didn't know what to do about it.

* * *

 

On the rooftop across the street, Broly sat restlessly. He'd determined that Chessa couldn't take care of herself, but that was hardly a new situation. What was new was the strange desire to  _protect_ her. He'd never experienced anything of the sort before. Curious. Usually, if something started to bother him to his degree, he'd just destroy it ... but he didn't want to destroy anything at the moment, much less  _her_.

He looked across the street to watch her pacing in what looked like confusion. He hoped he'd caused that; she certainly had done the same to him.

Broly didn't know what was going on here.


End file.
